Head Over Heels
by deepfathom
Summary: Hiccup's insatiable desire to confirm some suspicions sets him on a roll...down a hill. (Takes place shortly after the first movie. Drabble.)
"Lemme get this straigh', now," Gobber said, pliers poised and ready to pull out yet another deeply embedded thorn. "You were walkin' along, mindin' yer own business, when all of a sudden…ya tripped and landed in a thorn bush?"

"Ow!" Hiccup howled as the barb came free from the skin of his upper arm. "Well, not exactly. It's…complicated. Sort of."

He slumped miserably on a bench in Gobber's shop, covered in scrapes, dirt and a good peppering of nasty thorns. In all honesty, he looked as if he'd recently been trampled by a hungry stampede of Gronckles, then used as target practice by a couple miniature Deadly Nadders.

"I kinda bounced off a boulder and flew over a stream just before the bush broke my fall and kept my spine from snapping in half."

Gobber grunted, sharing a quick look of mild bewilderment with Gothi. The old woman was at Hiccup's other side, cleaning scrapes and applying bandages.

"That's fortunate," Gobber shrugged. "At least ya skipped the stream, eh?"

The younger Viking scowled. "Yes, thank you, Gobber, that makes me feel so much better—OUCH!"

Catching his apprentice by the collar as he made to escape, the blacksmith plunked him back down on the bench to continue his "treatment".

"Ah-ah-ahh, no' so fast, laddie," he chided, "y'still look like a wee pufferfish. Now, keep still and tell us the rest o'yer story."

"Urrgh," Hiccup grumbled with a roll of his eyes. "Before I bounced off the boulder, I rolled down a hill. A big one…"

"Tha' doesn't sound s'bad."

"…covered in rocks. Large, sharp, rip-off-your-skin-all-the-way-down rocks."

"Oh. Why were ya rollin' down a hill, now?" It appeared Gobber was more interested in getting the details of the account rather than the well-being of the one relating it.

Hiccup sighed, squirming under the scrutiny and the hovering pliers.

"That was where I tripped. At the top." He swallowed, then muttered, "I didn't know it was there until I was halfway down it."

"How in the name o'Midgard did ya no' see—"

"Look, I was busy and I wasn't watching, ok? AGH! Will you _stop_ that?!"

Gobber ignored him completely, lifting the pliers well above the reach of Hiccup's swatting hands.

"Well, what _were_ ya watchin'? Instead o'where ya were goin', that is."

"Oh, come on," Hiccup moaned. "Do we really have to do this? Can't we just sit here and enjoy the silence while you two patch me up? My head hurts enough already."

"Wouldn't be much silence the way yer squawkin' at us," Gobber replied. "Come now, tell us wha' happened."

Folding his arms, Hiccup slouched further, earning a jab in the ribs from Gothi.

"Gah! What is wrong with you? Ugh, fine…I was just walking."

The expressions of both the healer and the blacksmith defined the very essence of the term "skeptical".

"I was walking through the woods when I saw something, uh…something suspicious and decided to check it out."

"Suspicious?" The blacksmith reached for a cluster of thorns.

The younger Viking's annoyed frown cracked and gave way to the look of a small, cornered animal.

"Um…eheh, hard to explain—D'OWW!" He flinched. "Why is this so important to—"

"Hiccup!" a shrill new voice cut in from a distance.

In unison, the trio swiveled to see Astrid coming in fast and breathless, eyes round with concern.

"Hiccup! Are you ok?!" She skidded to a stop in front of him, looking him over quickly from underneath a furrowed brow.

Hiccup stiffened, then began to splutter. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine. Yeah, just…fine. Nothing to worry about. Heh, whatever you saw, I meant to do it. Totally…absolutely on purpose."

The brow raised slightly. "You meant to fall screaming down a hill?"

Gobber held up the pliers as if in triumph, smiling. "Aha! A witness! Tell me wha' happened, lassie. Hiccup's bein' a wee bit stubborn aboot sharin' his adventure."

"I'm not being stubborn!" Hiccup protested stubbornly. "And it wasn't an adventure! It was painful and embarrassing and I want to go home!"

"Well," Astrid had no trouble whatsoever plowing right over his complaints, "I was out in the woods talking to the visiting chief's son and I saw something small and green darting from tree to tree. It wasn't that hard to miss, honestly. Then he just sort of…yelped and disappeared flailing over the edge. There was a lot of shouting and cursing after that, but that's pretty much it."

Hiccup's face burned bright red and he scrunched himself down as far as he could, willing the ground beneath him to open up and swallow him forever. Gobber and Gothi paused, a knowing glance passing between them. Slowly, the blacksmith's smile grew into a wide grin.

"Ah, I see." Gobber nudged his young apprentice, causing him to grit his teeth in a pained grimace. "Y'saw somethin' suspicious in the woods, eh, Hiccup? Just had t'get a closer look? See wha' was goin' on?"

To his horror, Astrid's expression changed from concern to realization.

"Hiccup," she said, gaze stabbing straight through him, "were you…were you _spying_ on me?"

Silence.

All eyes were upon him while his own shifted guiltily from side to side. Not knowing what to do with his hands, he fidgeted, folding his arms, scratching the back of his head, extending an index finger as if about to make an important point only to lower it again.

"Ahahaaa," he finally spurted a fake laugh. "Uhhh, whaaat? Me spying? Why would I ever… Of course not! That's ridiculous…"

No one was buying this. Gobber maintained his impish smirk, about to bust a gut laughing, while Gothi merely arched an eyebrow. Astrid, arms crossed, seemed wholly unamused.

"Ok, ok, you got me." Hiccup squeezed his eyes shut, cringing with his arms held over his head protectively. "I admit it, it's true. I was spying. There, I said it, can I go now?"

"But, Hiccup," the note of slight disappointment laced through Astrid's voice nearly killed him right there, "…why?"

"Because…b-because you were out in the woods with that…that _other_ guy and he's so chunky and overflowing with Viking-ness and you were talking and laughing and—"

Amazingly, she suddenly seemed to be having trouble keeping back a reluctant smile.

"Wait a second," she said, "you thought he was flirting with me? You were… _jealous_?"

After a moment of hesitation, Hiccup gave the tiniest nod, pressing his lips together tightly. To everyone's surprise, Astrid snorted and laughed, waving him off.

"Pfft, are you kidding me? The guy's a complete mutton-head! I suggested we head to the woods for some combat practice, but all _he_ wanted to talk about were stupid, useless defense tactics and basic axe-throwing. Total novice, by the way." She paused, stepping forward to lay a hand on Hiccup's smoldering cheek. "Trust me, he's not _nearly_ as interesting or brave or smart as you."

She planted a light kiss on the end of his nose before straightening and hurrying back the way she'd come. At the doorway, she stopped, throwing him a sly wink over a shoulder.

"Not by a long shot."

For several moments after she'd gone, Hiccup sat with his jaw dangling wide open, speechless and numb, even as Gobber yanked out a few more sizable thorns.

"She…sh-she thinks I'm brave and interesting…and smart…" Sighing hopelessly, Hiccup melted. One could practically see the floating hearts dancing and spinning above his head.

Gobber gave him another nudge, lighter this time before selecting the next barb for extraction.

"Smart and interesting? Sure. I'll give ya that'. Brave…?"

"GAAAH! Thor-smacking serpent of–OW-OW-OW!"

"Eh, we'll leave it at 'debatable'."


End file.
